Redfin recently conducted a study looking at more than 7 million home sales over the course of the past four years to determine what impact, if any, seasonality had on the sales process. Not surprisingly, the study confirmed that listing your home for sale in the springtime was likely to result in a quicker sale and a higher sale price (see full study here). What was surprising to some is that listing your home in the wintertime was a close second.

“Among spring listings, 18.7 percent of homes fetched above asking, with winter listings not far behind at 17.5 percent. While 48.0 percent of homes listed in spring sold within 30 days, 46.2 percent of homes in winter did the same.”

The study goes on to say:

“Buyers [in the winter] often need to move, so they’re much less likely to make a low-ball offer and they’ll often want to close quickly — two things that can make the sale much smoother.”

That’s why we encourage our clients to have their houses ready to go on the market in late January or early February. However, given the persistent shortage of housing inventory in the North End, we are telling our clients to list now if it makes sense for their schedule. If you’re thinking about listing your home for sale in the next 6 months, keep in mind that most of your competition will choose to list their homes in the spring. Listing your home this winter could position you more favorably with motivated buyers who don’t have a lot of good inventory from which to choose.